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Three internists have left Monroeville-based Premier Medical Associates to join the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, according to spokesman Paul Wood.

Drs. George Wahal, Andrew Margolis and Kahir Ariff will become UPMC doctors next month, Wood said. The move was in the works before Premier reached agreement July 8 with West Penn Allegheny Health System to accept 30 primary care doctors who were employed by the health system, Wood said.

The West Penn Allegheny-Premier deal followed nine months of negotiations, which will increase Premier’s heft as a medical care provider in the city’s eastern suburbs while helping West Penn Allegheny cut losses associated with its employed physicians’ group. Premier is the biggest independent physicians’ group in the region; UPMC is the dominant hospital network, followed by West Penn Allegheny.

In May, UPMC reported its operating income rose 16 percent year-over-year for the first nine months of 2010. West Penn by contrast, saw an operating loss of $5.2 million between January and March, and announced last month it planned to trim 1,500 jobs and close the emergency room at its hospital in the city's Bloomfield neighborhood.

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Despite BP’s current status as one of the most hateable companies around, shareholders in a little-known biofuels technology company are probably quite pleased with the oil giant at the moment.

Shares of Verenium (VRNM), an industrial enzyme maker, spiked 42% after BP announced plans to buy its cellulosic biofuels business for $98.3 million.

Under the terms of the deal, BP will acquire Verenium facilities in Louisiana and California, as well as rights to its cellulosic biofuels and enzyme technology.

Verenium, which has had a partnership with BP since February 2009, will retain control of its core business and will continue to collaborate with BP on research and development.

Carlos Riva, Verenium’s chief executive, said in a statement that he was pleased with the deal and called BP "the right company" to invest in biofuels technology.

Philip New, chief executive of BP Biofuels, called the company’s existing partnership with Verenium "fruitful" and said the acquisition will help expand BP’s ability to deliver "low cost, low carbon, sustainable biofuels, at scale no faxing payday loans."

"This acquisition demonstrates BP’s intent to be a leader in the cellulosic biofuels industry in the U.S.," he said.

BP, formerly known as British Petroleum, launched a marketing campaign in 2000 with the slogan "beyond petroleum." While BP has been developing ethanol and other alternative fuels for years, BP continues to reap most of its profits from the oil industry, however.

The purchase comes as BP conducts tests on a new cap it placed on a ruptured well in the Gulf of Mexico, which has been leaking oil for nearly three months.

Despite this relatively small deal, BP (BP) is expected to sell more oil assets to cover costs related to the spill. It pledged last month to put $20 billion in an escrow account for liability payments.  

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BuzzLogic Inc. in San Francisco hired John Donahue as chief technology officer.

The online advertising company’s previous CTO, Jean Sini, left the job in 2009 to start a new business called Untangly in Mountain View.

Donahue worked at Omnicom Media Group, part of Omnicom Inc.

BuzzLogic had hired Sini when it bought Activision in 2008; Sini had helped start that company in 2005 payday loan lenders.

John Maley is BuzzLogic’s top executive: he’s chief operating and financial officer.

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Texas Comptroller Susan Combs said Friday that the state collected $1.61 billion in sales tax revenue for the month of June.

This is a 2.2 percent increase compared to June 2009.

“Total sales tax collections have now slightly exceeded year-ago levels for a third consecutive month,” Combs says. “Net collections in the oil and gas and manufacturing sectors expanded, but collections from the all-important retail sector were down from the year-ago level. While overall economic activity is no longer contracting, a resumption of solid growth in sales tax collections is not yet in evidence.”

Next week, Combs will send $442.8 million in sales tax allocations to cities, counties, transit systems and special-purpose taxing districts no checking account payday advance.

San Antonio will receive $17 million from the state for the month of July. This is a 15.8 percent increase over July 2009.

Bexar County does not collect a sales tax. VIA Metropolitan Transit will receive $7.8 million in sales tax revenue from the Comptroller’s Office for July. This is an 18.8 percent increase over July 2009.

The San Antonio Advanced Transportation District will receive $3.3 million from the state for July, an 8 percent increase over July 2009.

State sales tax revenue in June and local sales tax allocations in July represent sales that occurred in May.

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Patterson Cos. Inc. chose S.M. Wilson & Co. to build its new $15 million technology center in Effingham, Ill., about 100 miles northeast of St. Louis.

St. Paul, Minn.-based Patterson (Nasdaq: PDCO) is a distributor serving the dental, veterinary and rehabilitation supply markets.

S.M. Wilson said Monday it would immediately begin work on the 96,700-square-foot, three-level facility, which is slated for completion in mid-2011.

The St. Louis-based construction company is providing design/build services for the project, which is being designed to qualify for LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification by the U.S. Green Building Council. The architect on the project is Omaha, Neb.-based DLR Group.

The facility’s main level features a showroom, employee training center, offices, conference rooms and support space fast payday loans. The facilities top floor has additional training centers, offices, conference rooms and support space.

The building’s lower level will host a walk-out cafeteria, IT department, equipment testing labs, fitness facility, locker rooms, mechanical rooms, and shipping and receiving departments.

Patterson’s project includes a 450-space parking lot, an outdoor pond and walking trails around the facility. The project is scheduled for completion in mid-2011.

S.M. Wilson is one of the largest privately held companies in St. Louis with $439.1 million in 2009 revenue.

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Frito-Lay North America has received a $1.125 million grant from the Texas Enterprise Fund to launch a long-term project that will install business management software throughout the Plano-based company, creating 125 jobs in the process.

The Texas Enterprise Fund is controlled by the governor and used to recruit companies that want to relocate or expand to Texas.

Aurora Gonzalez, a spokeswoman for Plano-based Frito-Lay North America, said the fund’s interest in Frito-Lay’s IT transformation centers around the project's ability to create more than a hundred jobs.

The software upgrade and IT additions are “significant projects that require specific talents and people to do the work,” Gonzalez added.

The project also will create more than $50 million in business infrastructure, the Office of Governor Rick Perry said Friday when confirming the state’s financial commitment through the TEF fund cash advance flexible payments.

Frito-Lay’s project is the next step in parent company PepsiCo.’s multi-year plan to convert and upgrade the company’s business management software throughout product lines and divisions. The state’s investment will support the team responsible for the software conversion.

In response to the money allotted by the fund, Gonzalez said Friday, “As always we value or partnership with both the state and certainly with the City of Plano. We value their commitment to us, and we remain committed to them.”

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Porn sites could soon be swapping their .com for the sexier .xxx.

On Friday, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers board of directors approved the new top-level domain — that’s the technical name for the .com, .xxx or .net part of a URL — and sent it on to the next committee.

"It’s been a long time coming, but I’m excited about the fact that .xxx will soon become a reality. This is great news," said Stuart Lawley, chairman of ICM Registry, the nonprofit organization that has been leading the charge to establish the new TLD.

But final approval is still months away. "The board approved the movement forward on .xxx, but .xxx itself has not been approved," said ICANN spokesman Brad White.

Now the ICANN Governmental Advisory Committee, an organization of 100 governments, must take up the issue and offer public policy advice on .xxx. Its recommendations, alongside that of the ICANN board, will be considered as part of the approval process, said ICANN Chairman Peter Dengate Thrush.

He expects .xxx could become a reality by 2011.

ICANN has jurisdiction over top-level domains because it is the private nonprofit that manages the Internet naming system no teletrack payday loans. Through unique numerical addresses for each site — the IP address — individual websites are able to find and connect.

The long strings of numbers, however, are difficult to remember, so human-friendly domains were created. For example, it is easier to type in CNNMoney.com than it is to recall 157.166.159.230.

ICANN hasn’t wanted to allow every possible top-level domain. In 2007, the body rejected ICM’s original application to create .xxx. But an independent review board, consisting of a panel of experts, ruled that the rejection was wrong.

"We’ve accepted the decision of this panel, which means that the accountability mechanism has worked," Thrush said. "It’s a fantastic example of the accountability mechanism actually working."

ICM Registry said the .xxx domain is beneficial to the public because it sends an obvious signal that the domain contains pornography, which is desired by some and avoided by others.

Also on Friday, ICANN approved top-level domains that use strictly Chinese characters. 

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Shares of BP Plc continued their slide this week as the company passed the $100 billion mark in market capitalization lost following the April 20 Deepwater Horizon rig explosion.

BP's stock hit a new 52-week low of $27.07 Friday after a series of setbacks in the company’s effort to cap the leaking oil will and the revelation that it has so far spent as much as $2.35 billion on well cap efforts and spill cleanup.

The stock had closed at $59.49 on April 20, the day of the explosion.

BP (NYSE: BP) has resumed siphoning operations after a remotely operated vehicles damaged the well cap earlier this week, although recovery is at a reduced rate.

Moreover, there are additional concerns about the sustainability of recovery operations as a tropical storm approaches the spill area.

The Houston Business Journal is providing continuous coverage of the Gulf oil spill.

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New York state legislators approved more emergency spending, a new menu of business tax incentives and higher cigarette taxes in votes on Monday.

Legislators enacted another one-week emergency spending plan, staving off a government shutdown while everyone waits on a budget for the full fiscal year to be finalized in ongoing closed-door negotiations.

The state budget is nearly three months late and it must resolve a $9.2 billion deficit.

Lately, Gov. David Paterson has used the short-term spending plans to force votes on slices of the overall state budget, a rare piecemeal process.

After Monday’s separate votes, legislators have locked in roughly 70 percent of the budget for the total fiscal year, according to Democratic estimates.

To date, $5.53 billion of the state deficit has been erased through a mix of actions that raise revenue, and some spending cuts.

Legislators have yet to address $3.65 billion in red ink, according to Sen. Carl Kruger (D-Brooklyn).

The latest emergency spending plan, approved Monday, keeps bare-bones operations going through June 27. The bill passed the Senate 33-28, with Sen. Roy McDonald (R-Saratoga) breaking ranks with his party to vote for the bill. The legislation passed by a wider margin in the Assembly, which is dominated by Democrats.

“This year’s assault on taxpayers’ wallets has only just begun,” said Senate Minority Leader Dean Skelos (R-Long Island).

In addition, a majority of senators approved a budget bill setting full fiscal-year funding in the areas of transportation, economic development, public protection and the environment.

The bill passed the Assembly late last week by a 79-52 vote. A Senate vote count was not immediately available.

The bill enacts a transportation plan allotting $1.8 billion for roadwork this fiscal year, a drop of 9 percent, or $187 million, from last year.

The bill cuts a range of business benefits. The state is shrinking a range of hi-tech programs by $25 million, including matching grants and technology transfer incentives.

The bill also eliminates a $71 million subsidy for small businesses providing mandated coverage for mental health treatment, known as Timothy’s Law. Businesses will still be required to continue the coverage for employees.

Also, the bill enacts the state’s new menu of business tax incentives, called Excelsior Jobs. It replaces the signature Empire Zones program, which shuts off to new applicants after June 29.

Business lobbies have hammered the Excelsior Jobs benefits as mere shells of the incentives the state offered under Empire Zones. The new incentives are limited to specific industries, and the state will spend $50 million on them this fiscal year—compared with $550 million in annual Empire Zone spending.

Upstate Democrats indicated more needs to be done to help businesses.

“The Excelsior Jobs program is a good start. We will continue to develop incentives,” said Sen. William Stachowski (D-Buffalo). “This program lays the foundation for additional strategies.”

Skelos and other Republicans accused Democrats of gutting the state’s economic development tools.

“Surely now other states will be stepping up their efforts to lure companies that want to escape New York’s high taxes,” Skelos said.

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The Environmental Protection Agency is hosting four public information meetings in the coming weeks on hydraulic fracturing, used in natural gas drilling, to look at its impact on drinking water. One of the meetings is scheduled in Canonsburg, south of Pittsburgh.

Fracing is a process which involves pumping millions of gallons of water mixed with friction-reducing chemicals and fine sand into a well at high pressure to break up the dense shale and release the natural gas trapped inside. The technique, along with the advent of horizontal drilling technology, has made the gas-rich shale formations economically possible to develop, but it also has led to new challenges when it comes to ensuring the water is cleaned up properly after use.

Southwestern Pennsylvania is an area where fracing is of particular interest, due to the widespread Marcellus Shale natural gas play in the area.

The EPA meetings will provide public information about the scope of a proposed study on fracing, and will solicit public comment. Those wishing to participate should contact the EPA at least 72 hours in advance.

The meetings are scheduled as follows:

• July 8 in Fort Worth, Texas
• July 13 in Denver, Colo.
• July 22 from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. at the Hilton Garden Inn in Canonsburg
• Aug. 12 in Binghamton, N.Y., for three sessions

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